AIDS Fiction

Published: March 10, 1991

To the Editor:

David B. Feinberg begins his review of Peter McGehee's novel, "Boys Like Us" (Feb. 10), by saying that AIDS fiction seems to fall into two categories: "the 'Death Be Not Proud' school of noble suffering," in which dying men clutch "comforting stuffed animals"; and the dark comedy of "queens in black leather jackets kvetching about hospital-room decor."

The first category does not exist. Nobody has written anything so simplistic and cloying. The second category exists, in a fashion, and includes Mr. Feinberg's black comic novel, "Eighty-Sixed."

His mock overview is an asinine joke that trivializes any value his own book might have. Worse than that, it trashes the strong, diverse and honest response to the epidemic by more serious writers, such as Edmund White, Allen Barnett, Robert Ferro, Paul Monette, Sarah Schulman and Joel Redon. CHRISTOPHER BRAM New York